Big Data drives Teradata profit, shares rise

Reuters Staff

3 Min Read

(Reuters) - Teradata Corp’s (TDC.N) quarterly profit trumped estimates on strong demand for its high-margin products that help companies store and analyze large amounts of data, sending its shares up 5 percent in early trading on Thursday.

The strong results come weeks after peers Informatica Corp INFA.O and Qlik Technologies Inc QLIK.O issued weak outlook, sparking worries of a bigger-than-expected slowdown in tech spending in Europe and the United States.

Teradata, which raised its full-year profit outlook, is betting on the growing market for “big data” analysis — the ability to analyze vast amounts of stored information in real time.

Many tech start ups are looking at “big data” as their ticket to an initial public offering after Splunk Inc’s (SPLK.O) glitzy market debut in April.

Teradata was facing some delays in purchases from its European customers, but they would be offset by strong revenue growth in newer markets such as Russia, the company said on a conference call with analysts.

Second-quarter revenue from Europe, which accounts for a quarter of Teradata’s total revenue, grew 16 percent to $168 million, while gross margin rose 3 percentage points to 57.4 percent.

The company, whose customers include Coca Cola Co (KO.N), Dell Inc DELL.O, eBay Inc (EBAY.O) and Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N), expects a profit of $2.72 to $2.82 per share, excluding items, for 2012, up from its previous view of $2.60 to $2.70 a share.

Net income rose to $112 million, or 65 cents per share, for the second quarter, from $103 million, or 60 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, the company earned 77 cents per share.

Total revenue rose 14 percent to $665 million.

Analysts expected a profit of 65 cents per share, on revenue of $660.4 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shares of the company rose to $69.48 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock touched a life high of $79.88 in May, but has declined 17 percent since then.

Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty